IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER POST on the tiny ASUS Eee PC, a reader notes this article from the Wall Street Journal, in which Walt Mossberg says it’s cool, but (1) it’s too small; and (2) he doesn’t like Linux. “Too small” is in the eye of the beholder, but it seems just big enough to work to me — as a reader said earlier, it’s big enough for surfing and doing email, which is what most people do. I’d call it a second or third computer for geeks, or an inexpensive computer for a kid, but not a main computer for most people. As for the Linux — the basic functions are easy enough to use, and most people won’t go beyond that. And you can install Windows XP if you want.

I just had one of our IT guys in my office, though, and he was immediately taken with it and said he was going to buy one posthaste. So did one of my colleagues. On the other hand, if you wait a bit they’re going to put out a Wimax-enabled version. And if you want some data on my experience with reliability, ruggedness, etc. over a longer term, well, stay tuned. But it does seem to work fine, and it’s cute as a bug’s ear. For $399 that’s not a bad start.